Overview
Confidence in banknotes is important for keeping the whole economy functioning. That is why we work hard to ensure our notes are high quality, durable and difficult to counterfeit.
In this section
- Current banknotes
- Withdrawn banknotes
- Exchanging old banknotes
- How to check your banknotes
- Counterfeit banknotes
- Damaged and contaminated banknotes
- Polymer banknotes
- Scottish and Northern Ireland banknotes
- Using images of banknotes
- Choosing banknote characters
- The lifecycle of a banknote
- Wholesale cash distribution in the future
Our banknotes
Our notes are designed to be difficult and time consuming to copy. We work closely with De La Rue, the company that currently prints our notes, to ensure they are of a consistently high quality.
There are four denominations (values) of Bank of England notes in circulation: £5, £10, £20 and £50.
Upcoming banknotes
We will issue a new polymer £20 note on 20 February 2020. You can continue to spend paper £20 notes as usual and these will be gradually withdrawn as they are banked by retailers and the public. We will announce the date when our paper £20 stops being legal tender six months in advance.
In October 2018, we announced we are going to issue a new polymer £50 note. The mathematician Alan Turing will feature on the new note, who was chosen using our character selection process. We expect it to enter circulation by the end of 2021.
